Astronomy Magazine also posted an interesting little fact you might not know. The hourly rate of meteors during a regular night is six.

The Lyrids have been known to see massive spikes in the hourly rate. This happens as the Earth moves through a very dense chunk of the comet’s debris. In 1803, up to 700 meteors per hour were observed.

A journalist in Richmond, Virginia wrote at the time, “From one until three in the morning, those starry meteors seemed to fall from every point in the heavens, in such numbers as to resemble a shower of sky rockets…”

Another report during the storm said 167 meteors were counted in 15 minutes.